Most research on presbycusis (hearing impairment associated with aging) has focused on the nature and degree of the impairment. Almost no research has been conducted on the behavioral consequences of hearing impairment; that is the handicapping effects of hearing loss in the elderly. One major reason for this has been the absence of a valid and reliable measure of hearing handicap. There can be no understanding of the audiologic and non-audiologic correlates of hearing handicap, unless handicap can be measured and quantified. The Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) is a self-assessment procedure that probes emotional and social/situational response to hearing impairment. It was standardized on a clinic sample of 100 elderly subjects referred for audiologic evaluation; its reliability is high (greater than .90) and it has content and construct validity. The nature of the standardization sample, limits the usefulness of the HHIE as a criterion measure in that clinic patients most probably have greater hearing impairment than found in the more typical presbycusic hearing loss. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the HHIE on a community-based sample (N=200) to answer the following questions: 1. What is the internal consistency of the HHIE?; 2. how must of the variance in hearing handicap can be explained by audiometric variables?; 3. what is the relationship between audiologist judgment of handicap and self-assessed hearing handicap?; and 4. is there a difference between emotional and social/situational responses to hearing impairment? The answers to these questions should lay the foundation for the use of the HHIE in exploring the physical, socioeconomic and psychological correlates of hearing handicap in the elderly.